New species of clearwing moth from Guyana discovered in Wales

A new species of moth has been described far away from home following a cross-continent detective journey that included Natural History Museum scientists from separate fields, a budding young ecologist with a knack for community science, a globe-trotting photographer, and two moths new to science that traveled more than 4,500 miles from their native country.

The species is a clearwing moth and has been named Carmenta brachyclados, in reference to a characteristically short hindwing vein. Despite having never been catalogued in its native country, Guyana, a surprising sequence of events led to it being described after being spotted flying around a home in Port Talbot, Wales.

The research is published in the journal Nota Lepidopterologica.

In February this year, the new species was spotted flying around the home of ecologist Daisy Cadet and her mother, Ashleigh, a professional photographer. Captured by the moth’s striking appearance, which stood out as being out of the ordinary for a house moth in the U.K. during winter, Daisy uploaded an image to social media which set the chain of events into motion.

Daisy was referred to Natural History Museum lepidoptera experts, Mark Sterling and David Lees, having been advised she had stumbled upon something out of the ordinary by social media users. Mark and David started seeking a match of the Wales specimens in terms of appearance to the clearwing collection contained within the 13.5 million Lepidoptera specimens housed at the NHM—the world’s largest and most diverse collection.

Taking the investigation a step further, Sterling and Lees aided by the museum’s Jordan Beasley, carried out DNA sequencing on the moth and found that its closest match was a group of seed-feeding clearwing moths, Carmenta, which occur in Central America and South America. This finding prompted Daisy to look inside Ashleigh’s bag, which had accompanied her on a photography assignment in Guyana.

Two delicate pupal casings, still intact, were found in the mud from the boots she’d worn on the trip along with a small piece of woody vegetation with what looked like bore holes made by the caterpillars of the moths.

Mark Sterling, a Scientific Associate at the Natural History Museum, commented, “Clearwing moths are notoriously difficult to find, even by professional entomologists. They are even more difficult to rear from larvae or pupae, which usually dry out or go moldy within a few days of collection.

“The chances of two clearwing moths from the Neotropics successfully emerging in South Wales, over three months after they arrived, in cold Welsh winter, and being preserved in good condition, is extraordinary.”

“The improbability of this event defies rational explanation. However, while in Guyana, Ashleigh was told that if she left an offering of tobacco to the jungle spirits she would be shown something beautiful from the jungle, so that is what she did. We conclude in the paper that it must have been very good tobacco.”

Dr. David Lees, Senior Curator for Microlepidoptera at the Natural History Museum, added, “To add to the improbability of this story is the fact that, due to the incredible piece of community science from Daisy, we have photographs of a living holotype (an original specimen which forms the basis of the name and description of that species), which is highly unusual.”

Along with now having a country of origin for this new species, they also had a small piece of the host plant on which the larvae had evidently fed. The plant fragment was sent to Natural History Museum botanist, Sandy Knapp, who advised it was likely to be a seed pod of a species of Mora, a suggestion confirmed by DNA sequencing by Jordan. A large tree from the pea family, Mora excelsa grows in the jungles of Central America and South America.

The next step was to compare Daisy’s moth specimens to the vast number of species within the Carmenta genus—where only half of the 100 described species have been DNA barcoded. Using analyses of DNA and the specimens’ body plan compared to others on record, Mark and David concluded that this was indeed an undescribed species.

This story is republished courtesy of Natural History Museum. Read the original story here.